-working hard for 30 minutes bliss each day-

Archive for the category “Path to bliss”

If your internet connection is good, there is really no reason to leave the home for a productive day of caffeine fueled prose. While it’s a nice treat now and then to do our work in a coffee-house or book store, developing this habit can cause a sort of cancer of budget.

There are a few simple tricks and techniques for getting a cup of coffee from your own kitchen that rivals or surpasses any you will pay more money for to have served.

English: French Press (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Grind your own coffee beans

Whatever method you’re going to use for brewing coffee, grinding your own beans allows greater control of flavor. Depending on your brew method, you will want a different sized grind, or granule.

Use the French press method, vs. drip or percolation coffee makers

No paper filter- allows any natural oils to remain present in the brewed coffee. You can see the difference, and will be disappointed that you’ve wasted so much coffee essence on paper filters.

Easy cleanup- French press pots never need a cleaning cycle, and they don’t need much elbow grease.

Comparable prep time- French press coffee is no more difficult than drip coffee, and only takes longer for the water to boil, if you’re using a regular pot or kettle on the stove. Some electric water kettles can have you going just as quickly as any timed drip maker.

Only add condiments to very hot coffee

The simplest and most natural method for getting a nice foam on top of your homemade French press pot of coffee is to add sugar first, immediately after coffee is poured into a warm cup. By sprinkling the sugar over piping hot brew, the dissolve effect or reaction is so swift that it causes a very nice foam, enhanced if using half and half or cream.

When using the French press method of coffee-brewing, opinion is variable as to the proper amount of time to allow brew. In my view, five minutes seems to be the magic number for pulling the brew while it’s still hot enough to be beneficial. If the coffee has had time to cool, it is necessary to re-heat it, either with the microwave or on the stove top, in order for the sugar or other additive to foam. If you’re re-heating, be careful not to scorch your brew. Do not add the sugar or cream until after the coffee is hot!

Final trick- don’t disturb the additions too much. Lightly sprinkle the sugar, and lightly pour the cream. Let them blend naturally as the temperatures mingle. Try it- this is a process that can be tasted. Cheers!

I’ve had the problem of getting many more views than actual ‘likes’ and other types of feedbacks, SO I thought it’d behoove the crowd and myself, to adopt a more specific blog name in regards to the actual content.

While this blog is still in its infancy, it’s gone on far enough to see that people who are simply searching for a good spa coupon probably shouldn’t bother, and that by my simply adding the descriptive noun ‘writer’ to the title, I can effectively dissuade the notion.

So, the official announcement:

The blog known as The Daily Bliss Pursuit has changed it’s name on 28 Apr 2012 to reflect a more concise image of what one should expect upon visitation.

The new name for the same blog is, A Writer’s Daily Bliss Pursuit.

As we all know, for at least a little while, it’ll look much like this on the page:

Green-grazing has become as fraught with controversy as anything else in modern society, yet for the most part people agree that when there is anything that can be done in one’s own realm of reasonablilty- than that thing at least should be done. When people do find fortune to agree in any context, it is well-advised to show face and take some action.

3 Things you can do this month to Green-UP:

It is spring cleaning season, so you should be purging most areas of your life during this time already. When you’re ready to purge your sensitive documents and you have more than you can reasonably handle, utilize a shredding service for disposal. The benefits of a green shredding service are first, that they are capable of shredding the largest quantities in the most energy-efficient manner, being better equipped to do so. Second, a green-shredder will sort shreds into their correct recycling treatment areas. Think, paper to paper and plastic to plastic as opposed to the typical personal routine of throwing our cards and papers into the same shredder and disposing of it all in plastic bags. Third, a professional shredder can usually take on the crazy shreds like CDs and hard drives.

Watch your water consumption in any way that you can, without stressing yourself out. We recently invested in a very affordable shower-head assembly that only allows 1.5 gallons of water flow per minute. This is half the water usage of the shower head we were using, which was itself a water saver. It turns out that a 1.5 gallon outlet per minute is just about the greenest flow out there, accessible to the average consumer. Ours happens to be a Niagara Earth Chrome Conservation model, easily found via Ebay, Google, Amazon or Niagara.

Use your gadgets, and today’s technologies. Cut business travel to the necessary minimum. Imagine the fuel and accommodations savings. There are many thing today that can be done in a remote environment, eliminating unnecessary overhead and travel or commute related expenses. Email, online document sharing, discussion boards- you name it. How is your business or household using gadgets in the interest of Green?

On a larger scale, we should upgrade public transit with fuel savings and other wasted monies, which then should increase work opportunities and sustainable living- also an opportunity to encourage foot-travel and inter-community trading on a smaller scale once again.

Help me celebrate Earth Day 2012. Leave a note and let everyone know about one simple thing you do to contribute to the Green cause. If you’re not doing something now, let this Earth Day work for you and pick one suggestion right now for implementation tomorrow. It’ll make you feel better!

Although I sort of countered this blogger’s post, I really was attempting a complementary tone. The sentiment for this blogger’s “Nearly Wordless Wednesday” this week is a good one, and I especially enjoyed seeing the image and quote- not one I was very familiar with until now.

Like this:

It has been a very busy time the last week or two, especially for someone who is between day jobs (and also between night jobs for that matter). An incredible amount of work goes in to acquiring that next paycheck. Sometimes, incredible sums of money seem to be required in order to gain another payment!

Even though I’ve been laboriously working at my laptop for the past 20 hours, I still haven’t found the time to invest updates to my own personal endeavors. My irregular posting is now making me worry that I’ll let my personal experiment here float into a black hole. This does irk me. So it’s been a kick-start. No matter what, I’m going to have to do this. This blog is a largely personal exploration, and I’ve already met good friends. I haven’t been here, and so I’ve missed the grazing of posts I follow- a big nasty no-no, and a past-time I’ve come to look forward to, as I do (still) the Sunday paper- in print.

Hey! This is life. This is what we do. I must illustrate that otherwise, today has been one of the most productive days of my life, creatively, and since adding a career.

Image: kongsky / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I cannot claim to be changing careers, no-no, not just yet. It is a slow metamorphosis, yes, but with the one still always so present it is still just a dance between the two. I am fascinated by how much I learned in one day about editing and publishing both stylish aesthetic web copy and about building web pages. I never even intended it. Internet technology has got to be one of the widest spanning skills fields out there today. Always, to understand one concept, one must learn at least 1 – 2 other concepts or procedures. It is always something new.

I’ve been accused of a lack of focus, due to the appearance of an inability to commit to one goal. Another slant on that same trip is this: I’ve been admonished that splitting my desires between two goals is robbing me of huge success at either one. I am always somewhat stunned, and very puzzled, as to why anyone would venture to question in skepticism the interests- the passions- of another.

Simple existential questions:

What ever happened to having a hobby?

Don’t “they” suggest always having a backup plan?

What is career growth, if not learning to make money- and making it- doing things totally unrelated to your day job?